Isata Kenneth-Mason at Merton College

 Darren booked for us to see Isata on the piano at Merton College. We really like the Kennah-Masons and wanted to see inside Merton College grounds, so it killed two birds with one stone.

Merton is one of the oldest colleges and was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, Chancellor of England and later the Bishop of Rochester. The gatehouse in the first photo dates from the early 15th century when Henry V granted a licence to crenellate, and this allowed the construction of the battlement tower. Who would have thought that planning permission was as difficult then as it is today. 

The college was beautiful and during the interval the whole audience wandered around them admiring the buildings and the gardens. They obviously have very keen gardeners here and the plants all had labels with the latin names written on them. 

Fantastic stone carvings and gargoyles stared down at us from on high. 

Looking through a list of interesting facts about Merton it was disappointing to find that it celebrated its 700th anniversary in 1964, and then in 1966 it appoints its first female lecturer. It only took 702 years, but congratulations to Anne Wallace Hadrill who taught English Language.

Slightly more famous was JRR Tolkien who was a Professor of English Language at Merton and published Lord of the Rings in 1954.

Moving on to Isata, she opened with the Moonlight Sonata, a piece that I try to play too. Unfortunately, that's where our similarity ended and her rendition was nothing like mine. 

She played so beautifully, and after three encores came back and finished with a version of 'I say a little prayer' that must have had about half a million notes.

The only downside to the event is that the organisers left a pulpit right in the middle of the aisle and it really blocked the view of her. I rarely saw her head, but I could see her hands playing and her lovely sparkly dress.

Humber Bridge to Doncaster

 Parkrun day today and it's only 15 minutes walk from our hotel. It's a nice undulating three lap course around a park just next to the bridge.

My legs weren't up for a fast one after so much pedalling, although I look very concerned about the time in my action shot.

After breakfast at the Purple Palace we cycled about five minutes to the station.

Got a distant view of the bridge and then another one as the train pulled away.

Then we were on our way to Doncaster and spent a lovely couple of hours with family. On to the bikes again, back into town and our superb Art Deco hotel.

It was like entering a different world, one that we certainly weren't dressed for. The amazing receptionist upgraded us to a huge room on the ground floor to accommodate our bikes.

Dinner in the dining room was really good, and more great features.

Bridlington to the Humber Bridge

Quite an easy day today of just over 60 kilometres. As always we set off in warm sunshine, and headed south from Bridlington towards Hornsea. Unfortunately we had to join a busy A road for a while, but then turned onto a quieter B road and headed back to the seaside.

There wasn't a lot to see in Hornsea although we were surprised to find a huge statue and a notice board showing the route of another long distance cycle route. This time the Trans Pennine Trail and it goes all the way back across the country from Hornsea to Southport.

Something to consider for next year. 

One more statue of a big wave and a fish and we were off towards Hull. We actually followed the start of the Trans Pennine Trail and it went along a disused railway line all the way to the outskirts of Hull and was very enjoyable.

Hull was not good, to put it very politely and we went through it as quickly as possible, and the best place that we found to sit and eat our meal deal was on a bench by a dual carriageway and a retail Park.

Then it was just a few miles west to our overnight stay at a Purple Palace. Unfortunately no views of the Humber Bridge but it is very close by.

If we do cycle the Trans Pennine Trail then I think that we can happily start it from here and we don't need to re-do todays section. 

Flamborough

Caught a bus today to the North Landing next to Flamborough Cliffs. Our mission was to see a seal and a puffin. The bus was packed full of tourists but hardly any got off there. Why not? We had no idea as the bus just turned around and went back to Bridlington. They definitely missed a treat. 

The cliff top walk was beautiful and thousands of sea birds were nesting on the vertical cliffs. We tried really hard to find a puffin amongst them and got excited about some darker coloured birds all nesting together. After zooming in though we realised that they were just pigeons. At least it started with a P.

Sadly failing with that task, we spoke to two people with binoculars who assured us that there was puffins around.

We passed the lighthouses, both the new and old one to reach the Drinking Dinosaur. It takes a little bit of imagination but it was definitely there.

Just around the corner, behind the dinosaurs tail were the seals. Lots of them were bobbing about in the sea, and a few were lazing around on the beach.

After that success we decided to carry on along the cliffs all the way back to Bridlington. Stopping at The Ship pub for a restorative pint. 

Pocklington to Bridlington, Way of the Roses completed

 Fairly early start from Pocklington and straight into the Yorkshire Wolds. This was beautiful rolling countryside, but the best bit was that the roads rolled slowly upwards, so the cycling was nice and not too taxing.

Over the top and almost endless gliding gently downhill on the other side. 

Then we reached Driffield and the whole area from miles around was full of gridlocked traffic. We whizzed past it all and as we got close to the centre we found out that it was for the famous Driffield Show. We had never heard of it, and it is only on for one day each year, and is a giant agricultural show.

We quite fancied going in, but it was full of tractors and big stuff and there was no room for anything in our panniers.

Not too long afterwards we reached the outskirts of our final destination, and for the first time on the trip, we lost our signposts and our way, but eventually got to the seafront and the official finishing line.

We celebrated with some fantastic fish and chips, but I can't say that we are loving Bridlington. 

York to Pocklington

We couldn't stay in York and not go for an early morning sightseeing jog around the city. We set off so early that the city wall gates had not even been opened, so we had to just do the planned run in reverse.

It was nice and quiet with mainly only delivery vans on the streets and the market stallholders setting up for the day.

We stopped to admire the Minster and were on our way again.

Then back up on to the now opened wall and round to our hotel.

Very pleased with the route that Darren created for us.

After checking out and loading up we set off along a disused railway cycle path for a quick visit to Alex and Han.

Some nice art along the way, and then we headed for our overnight destination. The terrain is still very flat so we sped quickly and easily along to Pocklington. This is a nice small town, and we are staying in a little chalet in the car park of The Feathers pub. 

Back to normality, and there's nothing wrong with that.